NEWSLETTER

The EAA is an association for all archaeologists in Europe and beyond. It has participatory status in the Council of Europe, is a member of the European Heritage Alliance 3.3, and has been chosen as one of the Voices of Culture and Heritage for the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018.

This year, the E&N WG set up a booth at the MECC conference venue to promote the MCAA’s activities. Our stand was visited by over 300 scholars and researchers. The booth not only acted as an information point on MCAA activities for many young researchers and supervisors preparing proposals under the MSCA Programme, but also for the dynamic and lively community of MCAA archaeologists within the EAA.

The overall objective of our participation in the event was to reinforce the network of this particular community of MCAA Fellows: it is both dynamic and powerful in terms of intellectual ambition and practical relevance. The E&N WG plans to become a focal point for these MCAA Fellows (past and present). In this vein, the event was an opportunity to share good practice and to encourage debate on past and ongoing experiences in archaeology.

At the booth, MCAA Fellows promoted various MCAA groups to companies, autonomous researchers, and political and research institutions. The event also furthered collaboration with the MCAA’s Archaeology and Heritage Research Area Group and led to progress on the creation of a new Chapter in South America thanks to a past Marie Curie Fellow who took part in the EEA meeting.

Along with the majority of MCAA archaeologists who visited our stand, we plan to attend the 2018 EEA Annual Meeting, which will take place in Barcelona. Our MCAA panel will highlight how the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowships are contributing to the development of researchers and their future perspectives in the archaeological field. We also aim to discuss the situation in which many postdoctoral fellows find themselves, having
to accept temporary and insecure posts.

Career Day

This event was part of a Czech Science Fair sponsored by the Czech Academy of Sciences. The Science Fair was great…it took up two large halls in a convention centre and included stands from many Czech research institutes with lots of handson opportunities and live demos, along with stands from commercial and private research and tech firms. It was aimed more for primary and secondary schools, and there were lots of school groups and families there. I wish I were a Czech kid, because it looked like a lot of fun!

The Career Day was in an adjacent, smaller hall, and I believe  EURAXESS was the organiser. They had a prominent stand, and we were well placed at the entrance. There were about 20 other stands, along with a few seminar areas. However, the event was not very well attended. We did get a few researchers coming to talk about MSCA actions and even met one recent Individual Fellowship awardee. But in general, it seems like there was not a large contingent of undergrad or postgrad students and researchers. 

Nevertheless, it was good to spend the day with Lucie Homolová and Manuel Acosta, the Czech Chapter Chair and former Chair, respectively. Since they weren’t in Salamanca I could update them on our goals for Chapters. I also encouraged them to run more networking events throughout the Czech Republic and to liaise with the National Contact
Points (NCPs), EURAXESS and Universities to publicise MCAA to prospective members, MSCA Project Leaders and the research community in general.

EURAXESS

Chapter Management Working Group

I got some very good feedback from Lucie and Manuel, that even though the event was not so well attended they were very happy to have the MCAA there, since it helped them to feel more connected to the MCAA Board, and to the organisation in general. I’m very happy to hear this, as it reinforces the role of the Chapter Management Working Group – to establish better connections between the Chapters and the MCAA Board. I will encourage the Chapter Management Working Group members to attend events outside of their own chapters in the coming months.

The MCAA China Chapter and EURAXESS China held a successful brainstorming meeting with prospective China-based applicants for a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship at the German Chamber of Commerce in Beijing on 31 August.

The EURAXESS Country Representative outlined the different aspects of applying for an individual fellowship. This was followed by an hour-long discussion in both Chinese and English during which Marie Curie Fellow Qin Xiangang of the China Chapter shared his experiences. China Chapter Chair Chengjun Yu, and Marie Curie Fellow Wei Sha, joined the discussion, answering written questions online.

The presentation slides are available here.